To Ease the Passing of Time

It’s the end of the world as we know it. Half of the earth is scorched by heat while the other half is under water. Many people and animals are dead. Two guys who knew each other, but who would never have had any contacts with each other in normal times, meet in the public park of their little town of Northern Ontario. The grass is long, all the flowers are dead, and there are dead animals scattered all over the ground.

Henry used to own a trucking company and was also the owner of two gas stations. He also had a farm where he used a lot of pesticide and fertilizer to grow barley for a big beer company. Lawrence was a college professor and an activist who wrote about the danger of climate changes and pollution in general for years in the local newspaper and online. Lawrence drove an electric car and was off the grid. He had a few solar panels installed on the roof of his house. On top of all the trucks that he owned, Henry also had a big and a small SUV, a couple of motor boats, a couple of Ski-Doos, and all kinds of tools and gadgets all powered by gas and oil.

There was only one bench left in the park. All the others were either broken or burned. An old man was sitting on it. Leaning on his cane, he appeared to be sleeping. Henry and Lawrence sat quietly next to him. At first, they were silent. After a while, Lawrence started the conversation.

Lawrence: Look at the frigging mess you’ve created!

Henry: What the hell do you mean by the frigging mess I have created?

Lawrence: Not only you, but all the people like you, the ones who polluted the atmosphere with the fossil energy you were producing, using and selling.  

Henry: Yes, it’s true that my trucks were using a lot of gas to bring stuff from the producers to the consumers: food, medication, furniture, clothes, winter boots, shovels, and all the stuff that people need to survive in this cold and rugged country. That stuff doesn’t fly to your house and on the shelves of the stores by itself, for crying out loud.

Lawrence: I know, but there could have been other ways to transport the merchandise from the producers to the consumers.

Henry: Like what? Bogies drawn by horses, like the Mennonites near Kitchener.

Lawrence: And what about all the chemicals like fertilizers and pesticides that you were using on your farm? And what about all the tractors and the machinery?

Henry: Do you know where my ancestors came from, Lawrence?

Lawrence: No, you tell me!

Henry: They came from Switzerland. And do you know why they left Switzerland?

Lawrence: Why?

Henry: They left because there was a famine. That was in 1815.

Lawrence: A famine in Switzerland, you’ve got to be kidding!

Henry: And there was also a famine in France in 1693 and 1694. The population went from 22.25 million inhabitants to 20.75. And you damn know that there was a famine in Ireland in 1847 and 1848. About one million people died.

Lawrence: What’s your point? Where are you getting at?

Henry: Well, at that time there were no pesticides and fertilizers…and there were no tractors and no machinery.

Lawrence: And you think we were doing better with pesticides, fertilizers and machinery?

Henry: Of course! Under normal circumstances, when there were no wars and man-made famines, we were able to feed more than 8 billion people.

Lawrence: It may be true, but I still think it’s your fault. You knew what was coming our way with the climate change and the warming up of our planet. Scientist had been predicting what happened since the 1970s. And nothing, almost nothing, was done. Big oil producers denied it. Politicians who were put in place by them denied it. And many ordinary people were made to believe that climate change was just a theory that could be discussed decided and challenged just to ignore it as well.

“Excuse me”, the old man said. “I was not sleeping. I was just pretending that I was sleeping. I was listening to your conversation.”

Henry: So, what do you think about what we said, grandpa?

Lawrence: You must agree with what I said.

The old man said, “First, let me tell you this. My name is Spencer Davis. I’m one of the early scientists who sounded the alarm in the 1970s.”

Lawrence: Spencer Davis! I’ve read some of your articles. Everything that you wrote came true, but only faster than you had predicted.

Henry: So, you too must agree on everything and think I’m wrong. You must think that I'm guilty.

Spencer: Not necessarily, it’s a very complex situation. I think that you are right when you say that thanks to fossil energy we are able to feed more than 8 billion people. We couldn’t have done it any other way. We haven’t been able to find a source of energy as efficient the technology as fossil fuels. In countries like China, millions and millions of people are part of the first generation to get out of famine and poverty. Talking about China, did you know that while, as a country, China is the biggest consumer of energy, the consumption of energy per capita in China is a little bit over 6, 199 kilowatt-hours compared to 16,602 kilowatt-hours here in Canada.

Lawrence: But whose fault do you think it is that it came to this?

Spencer: You mentioned something important in your conversation with Henry. Like you, I think that those who orchestrated the campaign of disinformation to make it appear that the fact that global warming is caused by human activity is just an opinion instead of a reality have a great responsibility. But I would not say that all politicians are bad. They were caught between keeping things working efficiently while trying to find and develop new sources of energy for the future. They did their best but the lost the battle. We all lost the battle.

Lawrence: Do you think we could have won that battle?

Spencer: I think we could have survived maybe one more century if only we had put all our efforts and energy towards the same goal. In a way, we were victims of our own success. Thanks to fossil fuels we were able to multiply and live longer. The more people, the more stress on the planet. In 1960, we were a little more than 3 billion compared to a little bit more than 8 billion before everything came crumbling down. By the way, did you know that there were 5 periods of mass extinction on our planet?  I think we have entered the sixth. I think that human activity made the end come a little sooner but I also think that it would have happened anyway.

Henry: Do you think like Lawrence that I'm guilty?

Spencer: Not really. You were lied to and manipulated like many others. You did your best to make a living and provide for your family. And what you said about transporting the goods from the producers to the consumers is true. We could not have done it with bogies and horses like the Menonites.

The old man bent down to retrieve something out of the backpack lying at his feet. It was a bottle of whisky and an accordion. While pouring the whisky into three plastic cups he said, “We don’t have to worry about plastic now.” After a few drinks, when the bottle was almost empty, Spencer started playing the accordion and singing. The other two joined in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79m8lndzRN8